A Cambridge resident wants voters to hear both sides of the debate before heading to the polls. Through a website and a series of podcast-style interviews, he’s trying to make the state’s nine ballot questions easier to understand.
Neheet Trivedi, 45, a technology entrepreneur who is active in the community, launched The Ballot Line in May. The website outlines what each question would change depending on the vote, arguments for and against, and the groups supporting and opposing each initiative.
Trivedi also conducts podcast-style interviews with campaign organizers and community leaders. His first interview video, on Question 7, reached nearly 1,000 views, and the website attracts a couple dozen visitors a day, he said.
Cambridge Day: What prompted you to create The Ballot Line, and what were you hoping to accomplish with it?
Neheet Trivedit: I lived in California earlier for a few years and always faced this question: How do I vote on [ballot initiatives]? There’s so many of them. How do I educate myself? Some of these are deeply technical policy questions. Some of them are deeply complex political questions.
So, I started doing research on what each of these are, who’s supporting them, who’s behind them, how much money has been put into them … My motivation really was to make it easier for me to understand, and that has turned into making it easier for others to understand.
How did you decide who to interview to represent the arguments for and against each ballot question?
I did some research on who were the proponents of each of the questions. For example, Question 7 was pretty straightforward because there was one individual, Andrew McCullough, who was one of the main organizers behind the campaign and one of the first people to sign it. I met him and asked him to [do an] interview. The rest I emailed [after] looking online [for] who’s the ‘yes on 3’ campaign or ‘no on 3’ campaign.
I also tried to focus on [the questions] that I thought were the most complex, the most controversial, and potentially the most impactful. I ended up on [Questions] 3, 5, and 7, doing the interviews.
Which ballot questions do you think could have the biggest impact on Cambridge and Somerville voters?
I would say the biggest ones: 3, all-party primaries, 5, tax cap overall, 8, marijuana repeal, 9, gun law that we talked about. The one that we haven’t talked about yet is Question 4, same-day registration. And I think there are two reasons that this would have a big impact on Cambridge: One is because we have so many students who live in the city and in Somerville.
Students are moving in around Sept. 1. Primaries happen right in the beginning of September, and of course students may forget to register for the November elections. Many folks are moving here for the first time. They’re not going to meet the deadline, particularly if they weren’t here 10 days before.
Which ballot questions do you think voters are having the most difficulty understanding?
I think 8 and 9. The answers are opposite. On 8, ‘yes’ is repeal [recreational marijuana in the state]; ‘no’ is keep [current marijuana laws]. And on 9, ‘no’ is repeal [the current state firearm laws] , and ‘yes’ is keep [the current law]. I think it’s critical people remember that and just make sure that’s clear when they’re going in [to vote].
Question 3, I think people are really passionate [on] both sides. I think people are really afraid if it passes that it’ll dilute the role of parties and the ability to elect certain types of candidates that otherwise wouldn’t be elected. And I think the people on the other side really feel like this is a step towards something that’s more equitable.
Has creating The Ballot Line changed how you think about political engagement?
I love debate, and I really enjoyed hearing from both sides, hearing their perspectives, challenging them, sharing what the other side said. I do think it’s just so important that we engage in public debate and walk away from these debates not disliking the other person because we have a different view.
What I was trying to do here was, and is, start with the facts, start with education, and start with learning, and start with being able to see both sides of an issue, and going back to the facts. And then have a perspective, fight for your perspective, but let’s start from a place of common understanding and civil discourse and debate. So, I felt like the ballot initiatives were a unique place to engage in that type of civil discourse.
This story is part of a partnership between Cambridge Day and the Boston University Department of Journalism’s Newsroom Initiative.
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